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<!DOCTYPE html> <html lang="en"> <head> <title>CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA: Gospel of Saint Luke</title><script src="https://dtyry4ejybx0.cloudfront.net/js/cmp/cleanmediacmp.js?ver=0104" async="true"></script><script defer data-domain="newadvent.org" src="https://plausible.io/js/script.js"></script><link rel="canonical" href="https://www.newadvent.org/cathen/09420a.htm"> <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1"> <meta name="description" content="An introduction to the book"> <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"><link rel="alternate" type="application/rss+xml" title="RSS" href="http://feeds.newadvent.org/bestoftheweb?format=xml"><link rel="icon" href="../images/icon1.ico" type="image/x-icon"><link rel="shortcut icon" href="../images/icon1.ico" type="image/x-icon"><meta name="robots" content="noodp"><link type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" href="../utility/screen6.css" media="screen"></head> <body class="cathen" id="09420a.htm">  <br/> <div id="capitalcity"><table summary="Logo" cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 width="100%"><tr valign="bottom"><td align="left"><a href="../"><img height=36 width=153 border="0" alt="New Advent" src="../images/logo.gif"></a></td><td align="right"> <form id="searchbox_000299817191393086628:ifmbhlr-8x0" action="../utility/search.htm">  <input type="hidden" name="safe" value="active"> <input type="hidden" name="cx" value="000299817191393086628:ifmbhlr-8x0"/> <input type="hidden" name="cof" value="FORID:9"/>  <label for="searchQuery" id="searchQueryLabel">Search:</label> <input id="searchQuery" name="q" type="text" size="25" aria-labelledby="searchQueryLabel"/>  <label for="submitButton" id="submitButtonLabel" class="visually-hidden">Submit Search</label> <input id="submitButton" type="submit" name="sa" value="Search" aria-labelledby="submitButtonLabel"/> </form> <table summary="Spacer" cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0><tr><td height="2"></td></tr></table> <table summary="Tabs" cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0><tr> <td bgcolor="#ffffff"></td> <td class="tab"><a class="tab_color_on_beige" href="../"> Home </a></td> <td class="tab"><a class="tab_white_on_color" href="../cathen/index.html"> Encyclopedia </a></td> <td class="tab"><a class="tab_color_on_beige" href="../summa/index.html"> Summa </a></td> <td class="tab"><a class="tab_color_on_beige" href="../fathers/index.html"> Fathers </a></td> <td class="tab"><a class="tab_color_on_beige" href="../bible/gen001.htm"> Bible </a></td> <td class="tab"><a class="tab_color_on_beige" href="../library/index.html"> Library </a></td> </tr></table> </td> </tr></table><table summary="Alphabetical index" width="100%" cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0><tr><td class="bar_white_on_color"> <a href="../cathen/a.htm"> A </a><a href="../cathen/b.htm"> B </a><a href="../cathen/c.htm"> C </a><a href="../cathen/d.htm"> D </a><a href="../cathen/e.htm"> E </a><a href="../cathen/f.htm"> F </a><a href="../cathen/g.htm"> G </a><a href="../cathen/h.htm"> H </a><a href="../cathen/i.htm"> I </a><a href="../cathen/j.htm"> J </a><a href="../cathen/k.htm"> K </a><a href="../cathen/l.htm"> L </a><a href="../cathen/m.htm"> M </a><a href="../cathen/n.htm"> N </a><a href="../cathen/o.htm"> O </a><a href="../cathen/p.htm"> P </a><a href="../cathen/q.htm"> Q </a><a href="../cathen/r.htm"> R </a><a href="../cathen/s.htm"> S </a><a href="../cathen/t.htm"> T </a><a href="../cathen/u.htm"> U </a><a href="../cathen/v.htm"> V </a><a href="../cathen/w.htm"> W </a><a href="../cathen/x.htm"> X </a><a href="../cathen/y.htm"> Y </a><a href="../cathen/z.htm"> Z </a> </td></tr></table></div> <div id="mobilecity" style="text-align: center; "><a href="../"><img height=24 width=102 border="0" alt="New Advent" src="../images/logo.gif"></a></div>  <div id="mi5"><span class="breadcrumbs"><a href="../">Home</a> > <a href="../cathen">Catholic Encyclopedia</a> > <a href="../cathen/l.htm">L</a> > Gospel of Saint Luke</span></div> <div id="springfield2"> <div class='catholicadnet-728x90' id='cathen-728x90-top' style='display: flex; height: 100px; align-items: center; justify-content: center; '></div> <h1>Gospel of Saint Luke</h1> <p><em><a href="https://gumroad.com/l/na2"><strong>Please help support the mission of New Advent</strong> and get the full contents of this website as an instant download. Includes the Catholic Encyclopedia, Church Fathers, Summa, Bible and more  all for only $19.99...</a></em></p> <p>The subject will be treated under the following heads:</p> <blockquote><p><a href="../cathen/09420a.htm#I">I. Biography of Saint Luke</a>; <br><a href="../cathen/09420a.htm#II">II.Authenticity of the Gospel</a>; <br><a href="../cathen/09420a.htm#III">III. Integrity of the Gospel</a>; <br><a href="../cathen/09420a.htm#IV">IV. Purpose and Contents</a>; <br><a href="../cathen/09420a.htm#V">V. Sources of the Gospel: Synoptic Problem</a>; <br><a href="../cathen/09420a.htm#VI">VI. Saint Luke's Accuracy</a>; <br><a href="../cathen/09420a.htm#VII">VII. Lysanias, Tetrarch of Abilene</a>; <br><a href="../cathen/09420a.htm#VIII">VIII. Who Spoke the Magnificat?</a> <br><a href="../cathen/09420a.htm#IX">IX. The Census of Quirinius</a>; <br><a href="../cathen/09420a.htm#X">X. Saint Luke and Josephus</a>.</p></blockquote> <h2 id="i">Biography of Saint Luke</h2> <p>The name <em>Lucas</em> (Luke) is probably an abbreviation from Lucanus, like Annas from Ananus, Apollos from Apollonius, Artemas from Artemidorus, Demas from Demetrius, etc. (Schanz, "Evang. des heiligen Lucas", 1, 2; Lightfoot on "Col.", iv, 14; Plummer, "St. Luke", introd.)</p> <div class="CMtag_300x250" style="display: flex; height: 300px; align-items: center; justify-content: center; "></div> <p>The word <em>Lucas</em> seems to have been unknown before the <a href="../cathen/04636c.htm">Christian Era</a>; but Lucanus is common in inscriptions, and is found at the beginning and end of the Gospel in some Old Latin <a href="../cathen/09614b.htm">manuscripts</a> (ibid.). It is generally held that St. Luke was a native of Antioch. <a href="../cathen/05617b.htm">Eusebius</a> (<a href="../fathers/250103.htm"><em>Church History</em> III.4.6</a>) has: <em>Loukas de to men genos on ton ap Antiocheias, ten episteuen iatros, ta pleista suggegonos to Paulo, kai rots laipois de ou parergos ton apostolon homilnkos</em>--"Lucas vero domo Antiochenus, arte medicus, qui et cum Paulo diu conjunctissime vixit, et cum reliquis Apostolis studiose versatus est." <a href="../cathen/05617b.htm">Eusebius</a> has a clearer statement in his "Quæstiones Evangelicæ", IV, i, 270: <em>ho de Loukas to men genos apo tes Boomenes Antiocheias en</em>--"Luke was by birth a native of the renowned Antioch" (Schmiedel, "Encyc. Bib."). Spitta, Schmiedel, and Harnack think this is a quotation from <a href="../cathen/08565a.htm">Julius Africanus</a> (first half of the third century). In <a href="../cathen/04083a.htm">Codex Bezæ</a> (D) Luke is introduced by a "we" as early as <a href="../bible/act011.htm#vrs28">Acts 11:28</a>; and, though this is not a correct reading, it represents a very ancient tradition. The writer of Acts took a special interest in <a href="../cathen/01570a.htm">Antioch</a> and was well acquainted with it (<a href="../bible/act011.htm#vrs19">Acts 11:19-27</a>; <a href="../bible/act013.htm#vrs1">13:1</a>; <a href="../bible/act014.htm#vrs18">14:18-21</a>, <a href="../bible/act014.htm#vrs25">14:25</a>, <a href="../bible/act015.htm#vrs22">15:22, 23, 30, 35</a>; <a href="../bible/act018.htm#vrs22">18:22</a>). We are told the locality of only one <a href="../cathen/04647c.htm">deacon</a>, "Nicolas, a proselyte of Antioch", <a href="../bible/act006.htm#vrs5">6:5</a>; and it has been pointed out by Plummer that, out of eight writers who describe the Russian campaign of 1812, only two, who were Scottish, mention that the Russian general, Barclay de Tolly, was of <a href="../cathen/13613a.htm">Scottish</a> extraction. These considerations seem to exclude the conjecture of Renan and Ramsay that St. Luke was a native of <a href="../cathen/12007c.htm">Philippi</a>.</p> <p>St. Luke was not a <a href="../cathen/08399a.htm">Jew</a>. He is separated by <a href="../cathen/11567b.htm">St. Paul</a> from those of the <a href="../cathen/03777a.htm">circumcision</a> (<a href="../bible/col004.htm#vrs14">Colossians 4:14</a>), and his style proves that he was a Greek. Hence he cannot be identified with Lucius the <a href="../cathen/12477a.htm">prophet</a> of <a href="../bible/act013.htm#vrs1">Acts 13:1</a>, nor with Lucius of <a href="../bible/rom016.htm#vrs21">Romans 16:21</a>, who was <em>cognatus</em> of <a href="../cathen/11567b.htm">St. Paul</a>. From this and the prologue of the Gospel it follows that Epiphanius errs when he calls him one of the Seventy Disciples; nor was he the companion of Cleophas in the journey to Emmaus after the <a href="../cathen/12789a.htm">Resurrection</a> (as stated by Theophylact and the <a href="../cathen/10191b.htm">Greek Menologium</a>). St. Luke had a great <a href="../cathen/08673a.htm">knowledge</a> of the <a href="../cathen/13722a.htm">Septuagint</a> and of things Jewish, which he acquired either as a Jewish <a href="../cathen/12481c.htm">proselyte</a> (<a href="../cathen/08341a.htm">St. Jerome</a>) or after he became a <a href="../cathen/03712a.htm">Christian</a>, through his close intercourse with the Apostles and disciples. Besides Greek, he had many opportunities of acquiring Aramaic in his native Antioch, the capital of <a href="../cathen/14399a.htm">Syria</a>. He was a physician by profession, and <a href="../cathen/11567b.htm">St. Paul</a> calls him "the most dear physician" (<a href="../bible/col004.htm#vrs14">Colossians 4:14</a>). This avocation implied a liberal <a href="../cathen/05295b.htm">education</a>, and his medical training is evidenced by his choice of medical language. Plummer suggests that he may have studied <a href="../cathen/10122a.htm">medicine</a> at the famous <a href="../cathen/13554b.htm">school</a> of <a href="../cathen/14461b.htm">Tarsus</a>, the rival of Alexandria and Athens, and possibly met <a href="../cathen/11567b.htm">St. Paul</a> there. From his intimate <a href="../cathen/08673a.htm">knowledge</a> of the eastern Mediterranean, it has been conjectured that he had lengthened experience as a doctor on board ship. He travailed a good deal, and sends greetings to the Colossians, which seems to indicate that he had visited them.</p> <p>St. Luke first appears in the Acts at <a href="../cathen/15063c.htm">Troas</a> (<a href="../bible/luk016.htm#vrs8">16:8 sqq.</a>), where he meets <a href="../cathen/11567b.htm">St. Paul</a>, and, after the vision, crossed over with him to <a href="../cathen/05607b.htm">Europe</a> as an <a href="../cathen/05645a.htm">Evangelist</a>, landing at Neapolis and going on to <a href="../cathen/12007c.htm">Philippi</a>, "being assured that <a href="../cathen/06608a.htm">God</a> had called us to preach the Gospel to them" (note especially the transition into first <a href="../cathen/11726a.htm">person</a> plural at <a href="../bible/luk016.htm#vrs10">verse 10</a>). He was, therefore, already an <a href="../cathen/05645a.htm">Evangelist</a>. He was present at the conversion of Lydia and her companions, and lodged in her house. He, together with <a href="../cathen/11567b.htm">St. Paul</a> and his companions, was recognized by the pythonical spirit: "This same following Paul and us, cried out, saying: These men are the servants of the <a href="../cathen/06608a.htm">most high God</a>, who preach unto you the way of <a href="../cathen/13407a.htm">salvation</a>" (<a href="../bible/luk016.htm#vrs17">verse 17</a>). He beheld Paul and Silas arrested, dragged before the Roman magistrates, charged with disturbing the city, "being Jews", beaten with rods and thrown into <a href="../cathen/12430a.htm">prison</a>. Luke and Timothy escaped, probably because they did not look like <a href="../cathen/08399a.htm">Jews</a> (Timothy's father was a <a href="../cathen/06422a.htm">gentile</a>). When Paul departed from <a href="../cathen/12007c.htm">Philippi</a>, Luke was left behind, in all probability to carry on the work of <a href="../cathen/05645a.htm">Evangelist</a>. At Thessalonica the Apostle received highly appreciated pecuniary aid from <a href="../cathen/12007c.htm">Philippi</a> (<a href="../bible/phi004.htm#vrs15">Philippians 4:15-16</a>), doubtless through the good offices of St. Luke. It is not unlikely that the latter remained at <a href="../cathen/12007c.htm">Philippi</a> all the time that <a href="../cathen/11567b.htm">St. Paul</a> was preaching at <a href="../cathen/02046a.htm">Athens</a> and Corinth, and while he was travelling to Jerusalem and back to Ephesus, and during the three years that the Apostle was engaged at Ephesus. When <a href="../cathen/11567b.htm">St. Paul</a> revisited <a href="../cathen/12174a.htm">Macedonia</a>, he again met St. Luke at <a href="../cathen/12007c.htm">Philippi</a>, and there wrote his Second Epistle to the Corinthians.</p> <div class="CMtag_300x250" style="display: flex; height: 300px; align-items: center; justify-content: center; "></div> <p><a href="../cathen/08341a.htm">St. Jerome</a> thinks it is most likely that St. Luke is "the brother, whose praise is in the gospel through all the churches" (<a href="../bible/2co008.htm#vrs18">2 Corinthians 8:18</a>), and that he was one of the bearers of the letter to Corinth. Shortly afterwards, when <a href="../cathen/11567b.htm">St. Paul</a> returned from <a href="../cathen/06735a.htm">Greece</a>, St. Luke accompanied him from <a href="../cathen/12007c.htm">Philippi</a> to <a href="../cathen/15063c.htm">Troas</a>, and with him made the long coasting voyage described in <a href="../bible/act020.htm">Acts 20</a>. He went up to Jerusalem, was present at the uproar, saw the attack on the Apostle, and heard him speaking "in the Hebrew tongue" from the steps outside the fortress Antonia to the silenced crowd. Then he witnessed the infuriated <a href="../cathen/08399a.htm">Jews</a>, in their impotent rage, rending their garments, yelling, and flinging dust into the air. We may be sure that he was a constant visitor to <a href="../cathen/11567b.htm">St. Paul</a> during the two years of the latter's <a href="../cathen/12430a.htm">imprisonment</a> at Cæarea. In that period he might well become acquainted with the circumstances of the death of <a href="../cathen/07289c.htm#IV">Herod Agrippa I</a>, who had died there eaten up by worms" (<em>skolekobrotos</em>), and he was likely to be better informed on the subject than <a href="../cathen/08522a.htm">Josephus</a>. Ample opportunities were given him, "having diligently attained to all things from the beginning", concerning the Gospel and early Acts, to write in order what had been delivered by those "who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and <a href="../cathen/10326a.htm">ministers</a> of the word" (<a href="../bible/luk001.htm#vrs2">Luke 1:2, 3</a>). It is held by many writers that the Gospel was written during this time, Ramsay is of opinion that the Epistle to the Hebrews was then composed, and that St. Luke had a considerable share in it. When Paul appealed to Cæsar, Luke and Aristarchus accompanied him from Cæsarea, and were with him during the stormy voyage from Crete to Malta. Thence they went on to <a href="../cathen/13164a.htm">Rome</a>, where, during the two years that <a href="../cathen/11567b.htm">St. Paul</a> was kept in <a href="../cathen/12430a.htm">prison</a>, St. Luke was frequently at his side, though not continuously, as he is not mentioned in the greetings of the Epistle to the Philippians (Lightfoot, "Phil.", 35). He was present when the Epistles to the Colossians, Ephesians and Philemon were written, and is mentioned in the salutations given in two of them: "Luke the most dear physician, saluteth you" (<a href="../bible/col004.htm#vrs14">Colossians 4:14</a>); "There salute thee . . . Mark, Aristarchus, Demas, and Luke my fellow labourers" (Philem., 24). <a href="../cathen/08341a.htm">St. Jerome</a> holds that it was during these two years Acts was written.</p> <p>We have no information about St. Luke during the interval between <a href="../cathen/11567b.htm">St. Paul's</a> two Roman imprisonments, but he must have met several of the Apostles and disciples during his various journeys. He stood beside <a href="../cathen/11567b.htm">St. Paul</a> in his last <a href="../cathen/12430a.htm">imprisonment</a>; for the Apostle, writing for the last time to Timothy, says: "I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course. . . . Make haste to come to me quickly. For Demas hath left me, loving this world. . . . Only Luke is with me" (<a href="../bible/2ti004.htm#vrs7">2 Timothy 4:7-11</a>). It is worthy of note that, in the three places where he is mentioned in the Epistles (<a href="../bible/col004.htm#vrs14">Colossians 4:14</a>; <a href="../bible/phm001.htm#vrs24">Philemon 24</a>; <a href="../bible/2ti004.htm#vrs11">2 Timothy 4:11</a>) he is named with St. Mark (cf. <a href="../bible/col004.htm#vrs10">Colossians 4:10</a>), the other <a href="../cathen/05645a.htm">Evangelist</a> who was not an Apostle (Plummer), and it is clear from his Gospel that he was well acquainted with the Gospel according to St. Mark; and in the Acts he knows all the details of St. Peter's delivery—what happened at the house of St. Mark's mother, and the name of the girl who ran to the outer door when St. Peter knocked. He must have frequently met St. Peter, and may have assisted him to draw up his First Epistle in Greek, which affords many reminiscences of Luke's style. After <a href="../cathen/11567b.htm">St. Paul's</a> <a href="../cathen/09736b.htm">martyrdom</a> practically all that is known about him is contained in the ancient "Prefatio vel Argumentum Lucæ", dating back to <a href="../cathen/08565a.htm">Julius Africanus</a>, who was born about A.D. 165. This states that he was unmarried, that he wrote the Gospel, in <a href="../cathen/01101c.htm">Achaia</a>, and that he died at the age of seventy-four in Bithynia (probably a copyist's <a href="../cathen/05525a.htm">error</a> for B&oelig;otia), filled with the Holy Ghost. Epiphanius has it that he preached in <a href="../cathen/04606b.htm">Dalmatia</a> (where there is a tradition to that effect), Gallia (Galatia?), <a href="../cathen/08208a.htm">Italy</a>, and <a href="../cathen/12174a.htm">Macedonia</a>. As an <a href="../cathen/05645a.htm">Evangelist</a>, he must have suffered much for the Faith, but it is controverted whether he actually died a <a href="../cathen/09736b.htm">martyr's</a> death. <a href="../cathen/08341a.htm">St. Jerome</a> writes of him (De Vir. III., vii). "Sepultus est Constantinopoli, ad quam urbem vigesimo Constantii anno, ossa ejus cum reliquiis Andreæ Apostoli translata sunt [de <a href="../cathen/01101c.htm">Achaia</a>?]."</p> <p>St. Luke its always represented by the calf or ox, the sacrificial animal, because his Gospel begins with the account of Zachary, the <a href="../cathen/12406a.htm">priest</a>, the father of <a href="../cathen/08486b.htm">John the Baptist</a>. He is called a <a href="../cathen/11395a.htm">painter</a> by Nicephorus Callistus (fourteenth century), and by the <a href="../cathen/10191b.htm">Menology</a> of Basil II, A.D. 980. A picture of the Virgin in S. Maria Maggiore, <a href="../cathen/13164a.htm">Rome</a>, is ascribed to him, and can be traced to A.D. 847. It is probably a copy of that mentioned by <a href="../cathen/14577b.htm">Theodore Lector</a>, in the sixth century. This writer states that the Empress Eudoxia found a picture of the <a href="../cathen/15464b.htm">Mother of God</a> at <a href="../cathen/08344a.htm">Jerusalem</a>, which she sent to Constantinople (see "Acta SS.", 18 Oct.). As Plummer observes, it is <a href="../cathen/03539b.htm">certain</a> that St. Luke was an artist, at least to the extent that his graphic descriptions of the Annunciation, Visitation, Nativity, Shepherds. Presentation, the Shepherd and lost sheep, etc., have become the inspiring and favourite themes of <a href="../cathen/03712a.htm">Christian</a> <a href="../cathen/11395a.htm">painters</a>.</p> <p>St. Luke is one of the most extensive writers of the <a href="../cathen/14530a.htm">New Testament</a>. His Gospel is considerably longer than St. Matthew's, his two books are about as long as <a href="../cathen/11567b.htm">St. Paul's</a> fourteen Epistles: and Acts exceeds in length the <a href="../cathen/03453a.htm">Seven Catholic Epistles</a> and the Apocalypse. The style of the Gospel is superior to any N.T. writing except Hebrews. Renan says (Les Evangiles, xiii) that it is the most literary of the Gospels. St. Luke is a <a href="../cathen/11395a.htm">painter</a> in words. "The author of the Third Gospel and of the Acts is the most versatile of all <a href="../cathen/14530a.htm">New Testament</a> writers. He can be as Hebraistic as the <a href="../cathen/13722a.htm">Septuagint</a>, and as free from Hebraisms as Plutarch. . . He is Hebraistic in describing Hebrew <a href="../cathen/14074a.htm">society</a> and Greek when describing Greek <a href="../cathen/14074a.htm">society</a>" (Plummer, introd.). His great command of Greek is shown by the richness of his vocabulary and the freedom of his constructions.</p> <h2 id="ii">Authenticity of the Gospel</h2> <h3 id="A">Internal evidence</h3> <p>The internal evidence may be briefly summarized as follows:</p> <div class="bulletlist"><ul><li>The author of Acts was a companion of <a href="../cathen/11567b.htm">Saint Paul</a>, namely, Saint Luke; and</li><li>the author of Acts was the author of the Gospel.</li></ul></div> <p>The arguments are given at length by Plummer, "St. Luke" in "Int. Crit. Com." (4th ed., Edinburgh, 1901); Harnack, "Luke the Physician" (London, 1907); "The Acts of the Apostles" (London, 1909); etc.</p> <p><em>(1) The Author of Acts was a companion of Saint Paul, namely, Saint Luke</em></p> <p>There is nothing more certain in Biblical criticism than this proposition. The writer of the "we" sections claims to be a companion of <a href="../cathen/11567b.htm">St. Paul</a>. The "we" begins at <a href="../bible/act016.htm">Acts 16:10</a>, and continues to <a href="../bible/act016.htm">16:17</a> (the action is at <a href="../cathen/12007c.htm">Philippi</a>). It reappears at <a href="../bible/act020.htm">20:5</a> (Philippi), and continues to <a href="../bible/act021.htm">21:18</a> (Jerusalem). It reappears again at the departure for <a href="../cathen/13164a.htm">Rome</a>, <a href="../bible/act027.htm">27:1</a> (Greek text), and continues to the end of the book.</p> <p>Plummer argues that these sections are by the same author as the rest of the Acts:</p> <div class="bulletlist"><ul><li>from the natural way in which they fit in;</li><li>from references to them in other parts; and</li><li>from the identity of style.</li></ul></div> <p>The change of <a href="../cathen/11726a.htm">person</a> seems natural and <a href="../cathen/15073a.htm">true</a> to the narrative, but there is no change of language. The characteristic expressions of the writer run through the whole book, and are as frequent in the "we" as in the other sections. There is no change of style perceptible. Harnack (Luke the Physician, 40) makes an exhaustive examination of every word and phrase in the first of the "we" sections (xvi, 10-17), and shows how frequent they are in the rest of the Acts and the Gospel, when compared with the other Gospels. His manner of dealing with the first word (<em>hos</em>) will indicate his method: "This temporal <em>hos</em> is never found in St. Matthew and St. Mark, but it occurs forty-eight times in St. Luke (Gospels and <a href="../bible/act000.htm">Acts</a>), and that in all parts of the work." When he comes to the end of his study of this section he is able to write: "After this demonstration those who declare that this passage was derived from a source, and so was not composed by the author of the whole work, take up a most difficult position. What may we suppose the author to have left unaltered in the source? Only the 'we'. For, in fact, nothing else remains. In regard to vocabulary, syntax, and style, he must have transformed everything else into his own language. As such a procedure is absolutely unimaginable, we are simply left to infer that the author is here himself speaking." He even thinks it improbable, on account of the uniformity of style, that the author was copying from a diary of his own, made at an earlier period. After this, Harnack proceeds to deal with the remaining "we" sections, with like results. But it is not alone in vocabulary, syntax and style, that this uniformity is manifest. In "The Acts of the Apostles", Harnack devotes many pages to a detailed consideration of the manner in which chronological data, and terms dealing with lands, nations, cities, and houses, are employed throughout the Acts, as well as the mode of dealing with <a href="../cathen/11726a.htm">persons</a> and <a href="../cathen/10338a.htm">miracles</a>, and he everywhere shows that the unity of authorship cannot be denied except by those who ignore the facts. This same conclusion is corroborated by the recurrence of medical language in all parts of the Acts and the Gospel.</p> <div class="CMtag_300x250" style="display: flex; height: 300px; align-items: center; justify-content: center; "></div> <p>That the companion of <a href="../cathen/11567b.htm">St. Paul</a> who wrote the Acts was St. Luke is the unanimous voice of antiquity. His choice of medical language proves that the author was a physician. Westein, in his preface to the Gospel ("Novum Test. Græcum", <a href="../cathen/01441b.htm">Amsterdam</a>, 1741, 643), states that there are clear indications of his medical profession throughout St. Luke's writings; and in the course of his commentary he points out several technical expressions common to the <a href="../cathen/05645a.htm">Evangelist</a> and the medical writings of Galen. These were brought together by the <a href="../cathen/02630a.htm">Bollandists</a> ("Acta SS.", 18 Oct.). In the "Gentleman's Magazine" for June, 1841, a paper appeared on the medical language of St. Luke. To the instances given in that article, Plummer and Harnack add several others; but the great book on the subject is Hobart "The Medical Language of St. Luke" (Dublin, 1882). Hobart works right through the Gospel and Acts and points out numerous words and phrases identical with those employed by such medical writers as Hippocrates, Arctæus, Galen, and Dioscorides. A few are found in <a href="../cathen/01713a.htm">Aristotle</a>, but he was a doctor's son. The words and phrases cited are either peculiar to the Third Gospel and Acts, or are more frequent than in other <a href="../cathen/14530a.htm">New Testament</a> writings. The argument is cumulative, and does not give way with its weakest strands. When <a href="../cathen/05141a.htm">doubtful</a> cases and expressions common to the <a href="../cathen/13722a.htm">Septuagint</a>, are set aside, a large number remain that seem quite unassailable. Harnack (Luke the Physician! 13) says: "It is as good as certain from the subject-matter, and more especially from the style, of this great work that the author was a physician by profession. Of course, in making such a statement one still exposes oneself to the scorn of the critics, and yet the arguments which are alleged in its support are simply convincing. . . . Those, however, who have studied it [Hobart's book] carefully, will, I think, find it impossible to escape the conclusion that the question here is not one of merely accidental linguistic coloring, but that this great historical work was composed by a writer who was either a physician or was quite intimately acquainted with medical language and <a href="../cathen/13598b.htm">science</a>. And, indeed, this conclusion holds good not only for the 'we' sections, but for the whole book." Harnack gives the subject special treatment in an appendix of twenty-two pages. Hawkins and Zahn come to the same conclusion. The latter observes (Einl., II, 427): "Hobart has <a href="../cathen/12454c.htm">proved</a> for everyone who can appreciate <a href="../cathen/12454c.htm">proof</a> that the author of the Lucan work was a man practised in the scientific language of Greek medicine--in short, a Greek physician" (quoted by Harnack, op. cit.).</p> <p>In this connection, Plummer, though he speaks more cautiously of <a href="../cathen/07380c.htm">Hobart's</a> argument, is practically in agreement with these writers. He says that when Hobart's list has been well sifted a considerable number of words remains. "The argument", he goes on to say "is cumulative. Any two or three instances of coincidence with medical writers may be explained as mere coincidences; but the large number of coincidences renders their explanation unsatisfactory for all of them, especially where the word is either rare in the <a href="../cathen/13722a.htm">LXX</a>, or not found there at all" (64). In "The Expositor" (Nov. 1909, 385 sqq.), Mayor says of Harnack's two above-cited works: "He has in opposition to the Tübingen <a href="../cathen/13554b.htm">school</a> of critics, successfully vindicated for St. Luke the authorship of the two canonical books ascribed to him, and has further <a href="../cathen/12454c.htm">proved</a> that, with some few omissions, they may be accepted as trustworthy documents. . . . I am glad to see that the English translator . . . has now been converted by Harnack's argument, founded in part, as he himself confesses, on the researches of English scholars, especially Dr. Hobart, Sir W. M. Ramsay, and Sir John Hawkins." There is a striking resemblance between the prologue of the Gospel and a preface written by Dioscorides, a medical writer who studied at <a href="../cathen/14461b.htm">Tarsus</a> in the first century (see Blass, "Philology of the Gospels"). The words with which Hippocrates begins his treatise "On Ancient Medicine" should be noted in this connection: <em>'Okosoi epecheiresan peri iatrikes legein he graphein, K. T. L.</em> (Plummer, 4). When all these considerations are fully taken into account, they prove that the companion of <a href="../cathen/11567b.htm">St. Paul</a> who wrote the Acts (and the Gospel) was a physician. Now, we learn from <a href="../cathen/11567b.htm">St. Paul</a> that he had such a companion. Writing to the Colossians (iv, 11), he says: "Luke, the most dear physician, saluteth you." He was, therefore, with <a href="../cathen/11567b.htm">St. Paul</a> when he wrote to the Colossians, Philemon, and Ephesians; and also when he wrote the Second Epistle to Timothy. From the manner in which he is spoken of, a long period of intercourse is implied.</p> <p><em>(2) The Author of Acts was the Author of the Gospel</em></p> <p>"This position", says Plummer, "is so generally admitted by critics of all <a href="../cathen/13554b.htm">schools</a> that not much time need be spent in discussing it." Harnack may be said to be the latest prominent convert to this view, to which he gives elaborate support in the two books above mentioned. He claims to have shown that the earlier critics went hopelessly astray, and that the traditional view is the right one. This opinion is fast gaining ground even amongst ultra critics, and Harnack declares that the others hold out because there exists a disposition amongst them to ignore the facts that tell against them, and he speaks of "the truly pitiful history of the criticism of the Acts". Only the briefest summary of the arguments can be given here. The Gospel and Acts are both dedicated to Theophilus and the author of the latter work claims to be the author of the former (<a href="../bible/act001.htm#vrs1">Acts 1:1</a>). The style and arrangement of both are so much alike that the supposition that one was written by a <a href="../cathen/06135b.htm">forger</a> in imitation of the other is absolutely excluded. The required power of literary analysis was then unknown, and, if it were possible, we know of no writer of that age who had the wonderful skill <a href="../cathen/10733a.htm">necessary</a> to produce such an imitation. It is to postulate a literary <a href="../cathen/10338a.htm">miracle</a>, says Plummer, to suppose that one of the books was a <a href="../cathen/06135b.htm">forgery</a> written in Imitation of the other. Such an <a href="../cathen/07630a.htm">idea</a> would not have occurred to anyone; and, if it had, he could not have carried it out with such marvellous success. If we take a few chapters of the Gospel and note down the special, peculiar, and characteristic words, phrases and constructions, and then open the Acts at random, we shall find the same literary peculiarities constantly recurring. Or, if we begin with the Acts, and proceed conversely, the same results will follow. In addition to similarity, there are parallels of description, arrangement, and points of view, and the recurrence of medical language, in both books, has been mentioned under the previous heading.</p> <p>We should naturally expect that the long intercourse between <a href="../cathen/11567b.htm">St. Paul</a> and St. Luke would mutually influence their vocabulary, and their writings show that this was really the case. Hawkins (Horæ Synopticæ) and Bebb (Hast., "Dict. of the Bible", s.v. "Luke, Gospel of") state that there are 32 words found only in St. Matt. and <a href="../cathen/11567b.htm">St. Paul</a>; 22 in St. Mark and <a href="../cathen/11567b.htm">St. Paul</a>; 21 in St. John and <a href="../cathen/11567b.htm">St. Paul</a>; while there are 101 found only in St. Luke and <a href="../cathen/11567b.htm">St. Paul</a>. Of the characteristic words and phrases which mark the three Synoptic Gospels a little more than half are common to St. Matt. and <a href="../cathen/11567b.htm">St. Paul</a>, less than half to St. Mark and <a href="../cathen/11567b.htm">St. Paul</a> and two-thirds to St. Luke and <a href="../cathen/11567b.htm">St. Paul</a>. Several writers have given examples of parallelism between the Gospel and the Pauline Epistles. Among the most striking are those given by Plummer (44). The same author gives long lists of words and expressions found in the Gospel and Acts and in <a href="../cathen/11567b.htm">St. Paul</a>, and nowhere else in the <a href="../cathen/14530a.htm">New Testament</a>. But more than this, Eager in "The Expositor" (July and August, 1894), in his attempt to prove that St. Luke was the author of Hebrews, has drawn attention to the remarkable fact that the Lucan influence on the language of <a href="../cathen/11567b.htm">St. Paul</a> is much more marked in those Epistles where we <a href="../cathen/08673a.htm">know</a> that St. Luke was his constant companion. Summing up, he observes: "There is in fact sufficient ground for <a href="../cathen/02408b.htm">believing</a> that these books. Colossians, II Corinthians, the Pastoral Epistles, First (and to a lesser extent Second) Peter, possess a Lucan character." When all these points are taken into consideration, they afford convincing <a href="../cathen/12454c.htm">proof</a> that the author of the Gospel and Acts was St. Luke, the beloved physician, the companion of <a href="../cathen/11567b.htm">St. Paul</a>, and this is fully borne out by the external evidence.</p> <h3 id="B">External evidence</h3> <p>The <a href="../cathen/12454c.htm">proof</a> in favour of the unity of authorship, derived from the internal character of the two books, is strengthened when taken in connection with the external evidence. Every ancient testimony for the authenticity of Acts tells equally in favour of the Gospel; and every passage for the Lucan authorship of the Gospel gives a like support to the authenticity of Acts. Besides, in many places of the early Fathers both books are ascribed to St. Luke. The external evidence can be touched upon here only in the briefest manner. For external evidence in favour of Acts, see <a href="../cathen/01117a.htm">ACTS OF THE APOSTLES</a>.</p> <p>The many passages in <a href="../cathen/08341a.htm">St. Jerome</a>, <a href="../cathen/05617b.htm">Eusebius</a>, and <a href="../cathen/11306b.htm">Origen</a>, ascribing the books to St. Luke, are important not only as testifying to the <a href="../cathen/02408b.htm">belief</a> of their own, but also of earlier times. <a href="../cathen/08341a.htm">St. Jerome</a> and <a href="../cathen/11306b.htm">Origen</a> were great travellers, and all three were omnivorous readers. They had access to practically the whole <a href="../cathen/03712a.htm">Christian</a> literature of preceding centuries; but they nowhere hint that the authorship of the Gospel (and Acts) was ever called in question. This, taken by itself, would be a stronger argument than can be adduced for the majority of classical works. But we have much earlier testimony. <a href="../cathen/04045a.htm">Clement of Alexandria</a> was probably born at <a href="../cathen/02046a.htm">Athens</a> about A.D. 150. He travelled much and had for instructors in the Faith an Ionian, an Italian, a <a href="../cathen/14399a.htm">Syrian</a>, an <a href="../cathen/05329b.htm">Egyptian</a>, an Assyrian, and a Hebrew in Palestine. "And these men, preserving the <a href="../cathen/15073a.htm">true</a> tradition of the blessed teaching directly from Peter and James, John and Paul, the holy Apostles, son receiving it from father, came by <a href="../cathen/12510a.htm">God's providence</a> even unto us, to deposit among us those seeds [of <a href="../cathen/15073a.htm">truth</a>] which were derived from their ancestors and the Apostles". (<a href="../fathers/02101.htm"><em>Stromata</em> I.1.11</a>; cf. Euseb., <a href="../fathers/250105.htm"><em>Church History</em> V.11</a>). He holds that <a href="../bible/luk000.htm">St. Luke's Gospel</a> was written before that of St. Mark, and he uses the four Gospels just as any modern <a href="../cathen/03449a.htm">Catholic</a> writer. <a href="../cathen/14520c.htm">Tertullian</a> was born at <a href="../cathen/03385a.htm">Carthage</a>, lived some time in <a href="../cathen/13164a.htm">Rome</a>, and then returned to Carthage. His quotations from the Gospels, when brought together by Rönsch, cover two hundred pages. He attacks <a href="../cathen/09645c.htm">Marcion</a> for mutilating <a href="../bible/luk000.htm">St. Luke's Gospel</a>. and writes: "I say then that among them, and not only among the Apostolic Churches, but among all the Churches which are united with them in <a href="../cathen/03712a.htm">Christian</a> fellowship, the Gospel of Luke, which we earnestly defend, has been maintained from its first publication" (Adv. Marc., IV, v).</p> <p>The testimony of <a href="../cathen/08130b.htm">St. Irenæus</a> is of special importance. He was born in <a href="../cathen/01782a.htm">Asia Minor</a>, where he heard <a href="../cathen/12219b.htm">St. Polycarp</a> give his reminiscences of <a href="../cathen/08492a.htm">St. John the Apostle</a>, and in his numerous writings he frequently mentions other disciples of the <a href="../cathen/01626c.htm">Apostles</a>. He was <a href="../cathen/12406a.htm">priest</a> in Lyons during the <a href="../cathen/11703a.htm">persecution</a> in 177, and was the bearer of the letter of the confessors to <a href="../cathen/13164a.htm">Rome</a>. His <a href="../cathen/02581b.htm">bishop</a>, Pothinus, whom be succeeded, was ninety years of age when he gained the crown of <a href="../cathen/09736b.htm">martyrdom</a> in 177, and must have been born while some of the Apostles and very many of their hearers were still living. St. Irenæus, who was born about A.D. 130 (some say much earlier), is, therefore, a witness for the early tradition of <a href="../cathen/01782a.htm">Asia Minor</a>, <a href="../cathen/13164a.htm">Rome</a>, and Gaul. He quotes the Gospels just as any modern <a href="../cathen/02581b.htm">bishop</a> would do, he calls them Scripture, believes even in their verbal inspiration; shows how congruous it is that there are four and only four Gospels; and says that Luke, who begins with the <a href="../cathen/12409a.htm">priesthood</a> and sacrifice of Zachary, is the calf. When we compare his quotations with those of <a href="../cathen/04045a.htm">Clement of Alexandria</a>, variant readings of text present themselves. There was already established an Alexandrian type of text different from that used in the West. The Gospels had been copied and recopied so often, that, through <a href="../cathen/05525a.htm">errors</a> of copying, etc., distinct <a href="../cathen/05782a.htm">families</a> of text had time to establish themselves. The Gospels were so widespread that they became known to <a href="../cathen/11388a.htm">pagans</a>. Celsus in his attack on the <a href="../cathen/03712a.htm">Christian religion</a> was acquainted with the genealogy in <a href="../bible/luk000.htm">St. Luke's Gospel</a>, and his quotations show the same phenomena of variant readings.</p> <p>The next witness, <a href="../cathen/08580c.htm">St. Justin Martyr</a>, shows the position of <a href="../cathen/07462a.htm">honour</a> the Gospels held in the <a href="../cathen/03744a.htm">Church</a>, in the early portion of the century. <a href="../cathen/08580c.htm">Justin</a> was born in Palestine about A.D. 105, and converted in 132-135. In his "Apology" he speaks of the memoirs of the Lord which are called Gospels, and which were written by Apostles (Matthew, John) and disciples of the Apostles (Mark, Luke). In connection with the disciples of the Apostles he cites the verses of St. Luke on the Sweat of Blood, and he has numerous quotations from all four.</p> <p>Westcott shows that there is no trace in <a href="../cathen/08580c.htm">Justin</a> of the use of any written document on the life of Christ except our Gospels. "He [<a href="../cathen/08580c.htm">Justin</a>] tells us that <a href="../cathen/08374c.htm">Christ</a> was descended from Abraham through Jacob, Judah, Phares, Jesse, <a href="../cathen/04642b.htm">David</a>  that the <a href="../cathen/06330a.htm">Angel Gabriel</a> was sent to announce His birth to the <a href="../cathen/15464b.htm">Virgin Mary</a>  that it was in fulfillment of the prophecy of Isaiah . . . that His <a href="../cathen/11478c.htm">parents</a> went thither [to Bethlehem] in consequence of an enrolment under Cyrinius  that as they could not find a lodging in the village they lodged in a cave close by it, where Christ was born, and laid by Mary in a manger", etc. (Westcott, "Canon", 104).</p> <p>There is a constant intermixture in <a href="../cathen/08580c.htm">Justin's</a> quotations of the narratives of St. Matthew and St. Luke. As usual in apologetical works, such as the apologies of <a href="../cathen/14464b.htm">Tatian</a>, <a href="../cathen/02042b.htm">Athenagoras</a>, Theophilus, <a href="../cathen/14520c.htm">Tertullian</a>, <a href="../cathen/04045a.htm">Clement of Alexandria</a>, <a href="../cathen/04583b.htm">Cyprian</a>, and <a href="../cathen/05617b.htm">Eusebius</a>, he does not name his sources because he was addressing outsiders. He states, however, that the memoirs which were called Gospels were read in the churches on Sunday along with the writings of the Prophets, in other words, they were placed on an equal rank with the <a href="../cathen/14526a.htm">Old Testament</a>. In the "Dialogue", cv, we have a passage peculiar to St. Luke. "<a href="../cathen/08374c.htm">Jesus</a> as He gave up His Spirit upon the Cross said, Father, into thy hands I commend my Spirit?' [<a href="../bible/luk023.htm">Luke 23:46</a>], even as I learned from the Memoirs of this fact also." These Gospels which were read every <a href="../cathen/14335a.htm">Sunday</a> must be the same as our four, which soon after, in the time of Irenæus, were in such long established <a href="../cathen/07462a.htm">honour</a>, and regarded by him as inspired by the Holy Ghost. We never hear, says Salmon, of any revolution dethroning one set of Gospels and replacing them by another; so we may be sure that the Gospels <a href="../cathen/07462a.htm">honoured</a> by the <a href="../cathen/03744a.htm">Church</a> in <a href="../cathen/08580c.htm">Justin's</a> day were the same as those to which the same respect was paid in the days of Irenæus, not many years after.</p> <p>This conclusion is strengthened not only by the nature of <a href="../cathen/08580c.htm">Justin's</a> quotations, but by the evidence afforded by his pupil <a href="../cathen/14464b.htm">Tatian</a>, the Assyrian, who lived a long time with him in <a href="../cathen/13164a.htm">Rome</a>, and afterwards compiled his harmony of the Gospels, his famous "Diatessaron", in Syriac, from our four Gospels. He had travelled a great deal, and the fact that he uses only those shows that they alone were recognized by <a href="../cathen/08580c.htm">St. Justin</a> and the <a href="../cathen/03449a.htm">Catholic</a> <a href="../cathen/03744a.htm">Church</a> between 130-150. This takes us back to the time when many of the hearers of the Apostles and <a href="../cathen/05645a.htm">Evangelists</a> were still alive; for it is held by many scholars that St. Luke lived till towards the end of the first century.</p> <p><a href="../cathen/08130b.htm">Irenæus</a>, Clement, <a href="../cathen/14464b.htm">Tatian</a>, <a href="../cathen/08580c.htm">Justin</a>, etc., were in as good a position for forming a judgment on the <a href="../cathen/02137a.htm">authenticity</a> of the Gospels as we are of knowing who were the authors of Scott's novels, Macaulay's essays, Dickens's early novels, Longfellow's poems, no. xc of "Tracts for the Times" etc. But the argument does not end here. Many of the <a href="../cathen/07256b.htm">heretics</a> who flourished from the beginning of the second century till A.D. 150 admitted <a href="../bible/luk000.htm">St. Luke's Gospel</a> as authoritative. This <a href="../cathen/12454c.htm">proves</a> that it had acquired an unassailable position long before these <a href="../cathen/07256b.htm">heretics</a> broke away from the <a href="../cathen/03744a.htm">Church</a>. The Apocryphal Gospel of Peter, about A.D. 150, makes use of our Gospels. About the same time the Gospels, together with their titles, were translated into Latin; and here, again, we meet the phenomena of variant readings, to be found in Clement, <a href="../cathen/08130b.htm">Irenæus</a>, Old Syriac, <a href="../cathen/08580c.htm">Justin</a>, and Celsus, pointing to a long period of previous copying. Finally, we may ask, if the author of the two books were not St. Luke, who was he?</p> <div class="CMtag_300x250" style="display: flex; height: 300px; align-items: center; justify-content: center; "></div> <p>Harnack (Luke the Physician, 2) holds that as the Gospel begins with a prologue addressed to an individual (Theophilus) it must, of necessity, have contained in its title the name of its author. How can we explain, if St. Luke were not the author, that the name of the real, and truly great, writer came to be completely buried in oblivion, to make room for the name of such a comparatively obscure disciple as St. Luke? Apart from his connection, as supposed author, with the Third Gospel and Acts, was no more prominent than Aristarchus and Epaphras; and he is mentioned only in three places in the whole of the <a href="../cathen/14530a.htm">New Testament</a>. If a <a href="../cathen/05781a.htm">false</a> name were substituted for the <a href="../cathen/15073a.htm">true</a> author, some more prominent individual would have been selected.</p> <h2 id="iii">Integrity of the Gospel</h2> <p>Marcion rejected the first two chapters and some shorter passages of the gospel, and it was at one time maintained by <a href="../cathen/12652a.htm">rationalistic</a> writers that his was the original Gospel of which ours is a later expansion. This is now universally rejected by scholars. St. Irenæus, <a href="../cathen/14520c.htm">Tertullian</a>, and Epiphanius charged him with mutilating the Gospel; and it is known that the reasons for his rejection of those portions were <a href="../cathen/05075b.htm">doctrinal</a>. He cut out the account of the infancy and the genealogy, because he denied the human birth of Christ. As he rejected the <a href="../cathen/14526a.htm">Old Testament</a> all reference to it had to be excluded. That the parts rejected by <a href="../cathen/09645c.htm">Marcion</a> belong to the Gospel is clear from their unity of style with the remainder of the book. The characteristics of St. Luke's style run through the whole work, but are more frequent in the first two chapters than anywhere else; and they are present in the other portions omitted by <a href="../cathen/09645c.htm">Marcion</a>. No writer in those days was capable of successfully forging such additions. The first two chapters, etc., are contained in all the <a href="../cathen/09614b.htm">manuscripts</a> and versions, and were known to <a href="../cathen/08580c.htm">Justin Martyr</a> and other competent witnesses. On the authenticity of the verses on the Bloody Sweat, see <a href="../cathen/01224a.htm">AGONY OF CHRIST</a>.</p> <h2 id="iv">Purpose and contents</h2> <p>The Gospel was written, as is gathered from the prologue (i, 1-4), for the purpose of giving Theophilus (and others like him) increased confidence in the unshakable firmness of the <a href="../cathen/03712a.htm">Christian</a> <a href="../cathen/15073a.htm">truths</a> in which he had been instructed, or "catechized"--the latter word being used, according to Harnack, in its technical sense. The Gospel naturally falls into four divisions:</p> <div class="bulletlist"><ul><li>Gospel of the infancy, roughly covered by the Joyful Mysteries of the <a href="../cathen/13184b.htm">Rosary</a> (ch. i, ii);</li><li>ministry in <a href="../cathen/06341c.htm">Galilee</a>, from the preaching of <a href="../cathen/08486b.htm">John the Baptist</a> (iii, 1, to ix, 50);</li><li>journeyings towards <a href="../cathen/08344a.htm">Jerusalem</a> (ix, 51-xix, 27);</li><li><a href="../cathen/07435a.htm">Holy Week</a>: preaching in and near <a href="../cathen/08344a.htm">Jerusalem</a>, Passion, and <a href="../cathen/12789a.htm">Resurrection</a> (xix, 28, to end of xxiv).</li></ul></div> <p>We owe a great deal to the industry of St. Luke. Out of twenty <a href="../cathen/10338a.htm">miracles</a> which he records six are not found in the other Gospels: draught of fishes, <a href="../cathen/15617c.htm">widow</a> of Naim's son, man with dropsy, ten <a href="../cathen/09182a.htm">lepers</a>, <a href="../cathen/09566b.htm">Malchus's</a> ear, spirit of infirmity. He alone has the following eighteen parables: good <a href="../cathen/13416a.htm">Samaritan</a>, friend at midnight, rich fool, servants watching, two debtors, barren fig-tree, chief seats, great supper, rash builder, rash king, lost groat, prodigal son, <a href="../cathen/08010c.htm">unjust</a> steward, rich man and Lazarus, unprofitable servants, <a href="../cathen/08010c.htm">unjust</a> judge, <a href="../cathen/11789b.htm">Pharisee</a> and <a href="../cathen/12553d.htm">publican</a>, pounds. The account of the journeys towards <a href="../cathen/08344a.htm">Jerusalem</a> (ix, 51-xix, 27) is found only in St. Luke; and he gives special prominence to the <a href="../cathen/05215a.htm">duty</a> of <a href="../cathen/12345b.htm">prayer</a>.</p> <h2 id="v">Sources of the Gospel; synoptic problem</h2> <p>The best information as to his sources is given by St. Luke, in the beginning of his Gospel. As many had written accounts as they heard them from "eyewitnesses and ministers of the word", it seemed good to him also, having diligently attained to all things from the beginning, to write an ordered narrative. He had two sources of information, then, eyewitnesses (including Apostles) and written documents taken down from the words of eyewitnesses. The accuracy of these documents he was in a position to test by his <a href="../cathen/08673a.htm">knowledge</a> of the character of the writers, and by comparing them with the actual words of the Apostles and other eyewitnesses.</p> <p>That he used written documents seems evident on comparing his Gospel with the other two Synoptic Gospels, Matthew and Mark. All three frequently agree even in minute details, but in other respects there is often a remarkable divergence, and to explain these phenomena is the Synoptic Problem. St. Matthew and St. Luke alone give an account of the infancy of <a href="../cathen/08374c.htm">Christ</a>, both accounts are independent. But when they begin the public preaching they describe it in the same way, here agreeing with St. Mark. When St. Mark ends, the two others again diverge. They agree in the main both in matter and arrangement within the limits covered by St. Mark, whose order they generally follow. Frequently all agree in the order of the narrative, but, where two agree, Mark and Luke agree against the order of Matthew, or Mark and Matthew agree against the order of Luke; Mark is always in the majority, and it is not <a href="../cathen/12454c.htm">proved</a> that the other two ever agree against the order followed by him. Within the limits of the ground covered by St. Mark, the two other Gospels have several sections in common not found in St. Mark, consisting for the most part of discourses, and there is a closer resemblance between them than between any two Gospels where the three go over the same ground. The whole of St. Mark is practically contained in the other two. St. Matthew and St. Luke have large sections peculiar to themselves, such as the different accounts of the infancy, and the journeys towards <a href="../cathen/08344a.htm">Jerusalem</a> in St. Luke. The parallel records have remarkable verbal coincidences. Sometimes the Greek phrases are identical, sometimes but slightly different, and again more divergent. There are various theories to explain the fact of the matter and language common to the <a href="../cathen/05645a.htm">Evangelists</a>. Some hold that it is due to the oral teaching of the Apostles, which soon became stereotyped from constant repetition. Others hold that it is due to written sources, taken down from such teaching. Others, again, strongly maintain that Matthew and Luke used Mark or a written source extremely like it. In that case, we have evidence how very closely they kept to the original. The agreement between the discourses given by St. Luke and St. Matthew is accounted for, by some authors, by saying that both embodied the discourses of Christ that had been collected and originally written in Aramaic by St. Matthew. The long narratives of St. Luke not found in these two documents are, it is said, accounted for by his employment of what he <a href="../cathen/08673a.htm">knew</a> to be other reliable sources, either oral or written. (The question is concisely but clearly stated by Peake "A Critical Introduction to the New Testament", London, 1909, 101. Several other works on the subject are given in the literature at the end of this article.)</p> <h2 id="vi">Saint Luke's accuracy</h2> <p>Very few writers have ever had their accuracy put to such a severe test as St. Luke, on account of the wide field covered by his writings, and the consequent liability (humanly speaking) of making mistakes; and on account of the fierce attacks to which he has been subjected.</p> <p>It was the fashion, during the nineteenth century, with German <a href="../cathen/12652a.htm">rationalists</a> and their imitators, to ridicule the "blunders" of Luke, but that is all being rapidly changed by the recent progress of archæological research. Harnack does not hesitate to say that these attacks were shameful, and calculated to bring discredit, not on the <a href="../cathen/05645a.htm">Evangelist</a>, but upon his critics, and Ramsay is but voicing the opinion of the best modern scholars when he calls St. Luke a great and accurate historian. Very few have done so much as this latter writer, in his numerous works and in his articles in "The Expositor", to vindicate the extreme accuracy of St. Luke. Wherever archæology has afforded the means of testing St. Luke's statements, they have been found to be correct; and this gives confidence that he is equally reliable where no such corroboration is as yet available. For some of the details see <a href="../cathen/01117a.htm">ACTS OF THE APOSTLES</a>, where a very full bibliography is given.</p> <p>For the sake of illustration, one or two examples may here be given:</p> <p><em>(1) Sergius Paulus, Proconsul in Cyprus</em></p> <p>St. Luke says (<a href="../bible/act013.htm">Acts 13</a>) that when <a href="../cathen/11567b.htm">St. Paul</a> visited <a href="../cathen/04589a.htm">Cyprus</a> (in the reign of Claudius) Sergius Paulus was proconsul (<em>anthupatos</em>) there. Grotius asserted that this was an abuse of language, on the part of the natives, who wished to flatter the governor by calling him proconsul, instead of proprætor (<em>antistrategos</em>), which he really was; and that St. Luke used the popular appellation. Even <a href="../cathen/02304b.htm">Baronius</a> (Annales, ad Ann. 46) supposed that, though <a href="../cathen/04589a.htm">Cyprus</a> was only a prætorian province, it was <a href="../cathen/07462a.htm">honoured</a> by being ruled by the proconsul of Cilicia, who must have been Sergius Paulus. But this is all a mistake. Cato captured <a href="../cathen/04589a.htm">Cyprus</a>, Cicero was proconsul of Cilicia and <a href="../cathen/04589a.htm">Cyprus</a> in 52 B.C.; Mark Antony gave the island to Cleopatra; <a href="../cathen/02107a.htm">Augustus</a> made it a prætorian province in 27 B.C., but in 22 B.C. he transferred it to the senate, and it became again a proconsular province. This latter fact is not stated by Strabo, but it is mentioned by Dion Cassius (LIII). In Hadrian's time it was once more under a proprætor, while under Severus it was again administered by a proconsul. There can be no <a href="../cathen/05141a.htm">doubt</a> that in the reign of Claudius, when <a href="../cathen/11567b.htm">St. Paul</a> visited it, <a href="../cathen/04589a.htm">Cyprus</a> was under a proconsul (<em>anthupatos</em>), as stated by St. Luke. Numerous <a href="../cathen/11152a.htm">coins</a> have been discovered in <a href="../cathen/04589a.htm">Cyprus</a>, bearing the head and name of Claudius on one side, and the names of the proconsuls of <a href="../cathen/04589a.htm">Cyprus</a> on the other. A woodcut engraving of one is given in Conybeare and Howson's "St. Paul", at the end of chapter v. On the reverse it has: <em>EPI KOMINOU PROKAU ANTHUPATOU: KUPRION</em>--"Money of the Cyprians under Cominius Proclus, Proconsul." The head of Claudius (with his name) is figured on the other side. General Cesnola discovered a long inscription on a pedestal of white marble, at Solvi, in the north of the island, having the words: <em>EPI PAULOU ANTHUPATOU</em>--"Under Paulus Proconsul." Lightfoot, Zochler, Ramsay, Knabenbauer, Zahn, and Vigouroux hold that this was the actual (Sergius) Paulus of <a href="../bible/act013.htm">Acts 13:7</a>.</p> <p><em>(2) The Politarchs in Thessalonica</em></p> <p>An excellent example of St. Luke's accuracy is afforded by his statement that rulers of <a href="../cathen/14633a.htm">Thessalonica</a> were called "politarchs" (<em>politarchai</em>--<a href="../bible/act017.htm#vrs6">Acts 17:6, 8</a>). The word is not found in the Greek classics; but there is a large stone in the British Museum, which was found in an arch in <a href="../cathen/14633a.htm">Thessalonica</a>, containing an inscription which is supposed to date from the time of <a href="../cathen/15379a.htm">Vespasian</a>. Here we find the word used by St. Luke together with the names of several such politarchs, among them being names identical with some of <a href="../cathen/11567b.htm">St. Paul's</a> converts: Sopater, Gaius, Secundus. Burton in "American Journal of Theology" (July, 1898) has drawn attention to seventeen inscriptions proving the existence of politarchs in ancient times. Thirteen were found in <a href="../cathen/12174a.htm">Macedonia</a>, and five were discovered in <a href="../cathen/14633a.htm">Thessalonica</a>, dating from the middle of the first to the end of the second century.</p> <p><em>(3) Knowledge of Pisidian Antioch, Iconium, Lystra, and Derbe</em></p> <p>The geographical, municipal, and political <a href="../cathen/08673a.htm">knowledge</a> of St. Luke, when speaking of <a href="../cathen/01570a.htm#II">Pisidian Antioch</a>, <a href="../cathen/07619a.htm">Iconium</a>, <a href="../cathen/09478c.htm">Lystra</a>, and Derbe, is fully borne out by recent research (see Ramsay, "St. Paul the Traveller", and other references given in <a href="../cathen/06336a.htm">EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS</a>).</p> <p><em>(4) Knowledge of Philippian customs</em></p> <p>He is equally sure when speaking of <a href="../cathen/12007c.htm">Philippi</a>, a Roman colony, where the duumviri were called "prætors" (<em>strategoi</em>--<a href="../bible/act016.htm#vrs20">Acts 16:20, 35</a>), a lofty title which duumviri assumed in <a href="../cathen/03319a.htm">Capua</a> and elsewhere, as we learn from Cicero and Horace (Sat., I, v, 34). They also had lictors (<em>rabsouchoi</em>), after the manner of real prætors.</p> <p><em>(5) References to Ephesus, Athens, and Corinth</em></p> <p>His references to Ephesus, <a href="../cathen/02046a.htm">Athens</a>, <a href="../cathen/04363b.htm">Corinth</a>, are altogether in keeping with everything that is now known of these cities. Take a single instance: "In Ephesus <a href="../cathen/11567b.htm">St. Paul</a> taught in the <a href="../cathen/13554b.htm">school</a> of Tyrannus, in the city of <a href="../cathen/14119a.htm">Socrates</a> he discussed moral questions in the market-place. How incongruous it would seem if the methods were transposed! But the narrative never makes a <a href="../cathen/05781a.htm">false</a> step amid all the many details as the scene changes from city to city; and that is the conclusive <a href="../cathen/12454c.htm">proof</a> that it is a picture of real life" (Ramsay, op. cit., 238). St. Luke mentions (<a href="../bible/act018.htm#vrs2">Acts 18:2</a>) that when <a href="../cathen/11567b.htm">St. Paul</a> was at <a href="../cathen/04363b.htm">Corinth</a> the <a href="../cathen/08399a.htm">Jews</a> had been recently expelled from <a href="../cathen/13164a.htm">Rome</a> by Claudius, and this is confirmed by a chance statement of Suetonius. He tells us (ibid., 12) that Gallio was then proconsul in Corinth (the capital of the Roman province of <a href="../cathen/01101c.htm">Achaia</a>). There is no direct evidence that he was proconsul in <a href="../cathen/01101c.htm">Achaia</a>, but his brother Seneca writes that Gallio caught a fever there, and went on a voyage for his health. The description of the riot at Ephesus (<a href="../bible/act019.htm">Acts 19</a>) brings together, in the space of eighteen verses, an extraordinary amount of <a href="../cathen/08673a.htm">knowledge</a> of the city, that is fully corroborated by numerous inscriptions, and representations on <a href="../cathen/11152a.htm">coins</a>, medals, etc., recently discovered. There are allusions to the temple of Diana (one of the seven wonders of the world), to the fact that Ephesus gloried in being her temple-sweeper her caretaker (<em>neokoros</em>), to the theatre as the place of assembly for the people, to the town clerk (<em>grammateus</em>), to the Asiarchs, to sacrilegious (<em>ierosuloi</em>), to proconsular sessions, artificers, etc. The <em>ecclesia</em> (the usual word in Ephesus for the assembly of the people) and the <em>grammateus</em> or town-clerk (the title of a high official frequent on Ephesian <a href="../cathen/11152a.htm">coins</a>) completely puzzled <a href="../cathen/04377a.htm">Cornelius a Lapide</a>, <a href="../cathen/02304b.htm">Baronius</a>, and other commentators, who imagined the <em>ecclesia</em> meant a <a href="../cathen/14379b.htm">synagogue</a>, etc. (see Vigouroux, "Le Nouveau Testament et les Découvertes Archéologiques", Paris, 1890).</p> <p><em>(6) The Shipwreck</em></p> <p>The account of the voyage and shipwreck described in Acts (<a href="../bible/act027.htm">27</a> and <a href="../bible/act028.htm">28</a>) is regarded by competent authorities on nautical matters as a marvellous instance of accurate description (see Smith's classical work on the subject, "Voyage and Shipwreck of St. Paul" (4th ed., London, 1880). Blass (Acta Apostolorum, 186) says: "Extrema duo capita habent descriptionem clarissimam itineris maritimi quod Paulus in Italiam fecit: quæ descriptio ab homine harum rerum perito judicata est monumentum omnium pretiosissimum, quæ rei navalis ex tote antiquitate nobis relicta est. V. Breusing, 'Die Nautik der Alten' (Bremen, 1886)." See also Knowling "The Acts of the Apostles" in "Exp. Gr. Test." (London, 1900).</p> <h2 id="vii">Lysanias tetrarch of Abilene</h2> <p><a href="../cathen/06542a.htm">Gfrörer</a>, B. Bauer, Hilgenfeld, Keim, and Holtzmann assert that St. Luke perpetrated a gross chronological blunder of sixty years by making Lysanias, the son of Ptolemy, who lived 36 B.C., and was <a href="../cathen/12565a.htm">put to death</a> by Mark Antony, tetrarch of Abilene when <a href="../cathen/08486b.htm">John the Baptist</a> began to preach (iii, 1). Strauss says: "He [Luke] makes rule, 30 years after the birth of <a href="../cathen/08374c.htm">Christ</a>, a certain Lysanias, who had certainly been slain 30 years previous to that birth--a slight <a href="../cathen/05525a.htm">error</a> of 60 years." On the face of it, it is highly improbable that such a careful writer as St. Luke would have gone out of his way to run the risk of making such a blunder, for the mere purpose of helping to fix the <a href="../cathen/04636c.htm">date</a> of the public ministry. Fortunately, we have a complete refutation supplied by Schürer, a writer by no means over friendly to St. Luke, as we shall see when treating of the Census of Quirinius. Ptolemy Mennæus was King of the Itureans (whose kingdom embraced the Lebanon and plain of Massyas with the capital Chalcis, between the Lebanon and Anti-Lebanon) from 85-40 B.C. His territories extended on the east towards Damascus, and on the south embraced Panias, and part, at least, of <a href="../cathen/06341c.htm">Galilee</a>. Lysanias the older succeeded his <a href="../cathen/11478c.htm">father</a> Ptolemy about 40 B.C. (Josephus, "Ant.", XIV, xii, 3; "Bell Jud.", I, xiii, 1), and is styled by Dion Cassius "King of the Itureans" (XLIX, 32). After reigning about four or five years he was <a href="../cathen/12565a.htm">put to death</a> by Mark Antony, at the instigation of Cleopatra, who received a large portion of his territory (Josephus, "Ant.", XV, iv, 1; "Bel. Jud.", I, xxii, 3; Dion Cassius, op. cit.).</p> <p>As the latter and Porphyry call him "king", it is <a href="../cathen/05141a.htm">doubtful</a> whether the <a href="../cathen/11152a.htm">coins</a> bearing the superscription "Lysanias tetrarch and high <a href="../cathen/12406a.htm">priest</a>" belong to him, for there were one or more later princes called Lysanias. After his death his kingdom was gradually divided up into at least four districts, and the three principal ones were certainly not called after him. A certain Zenodorus took on lease the possessions of Lysanias, 23 B.C., but Trachonitis was soon taken from him and given to <a href="../cathen/07289c.htm">Herod</a>. On the death of Zenodorus in 20 B.C., Ulatha and Panias, the territories over which he ruled, were given by <a href="../cathen/02107a.htm">Augustus</a> to <a href="../cathen/07289c.htm">Herod</a>. This is called the tetrarchy of Zenodorus by Dion Cassius. "It seems therefore that Zenodorus, after the death of Lysanias, had received on rent a portion of his territory from Cleopatra, and that after Cleopatra's death this 'rented' domain, subject to tribute, was continued to him with the title of tetrarch" (Schürer, I, II app., 333, i). Mention is made on a monument, at Heliopolis, of "Zenodorus, son of the tetrarch Lysanias". It has been generally supposed that this is the Zenodorus just mentioned, but it is uncertain whether the first Lysanias was ever called tetrarch. It is <a href="../cathen/12454c.htm">proved</a> from the inscriptions that there was a genealogical connection between the <a href="../cathen/05782a.htm">families</a> of Lysanias and Zenodorus, and the same name may have been often repeated in the <a href="../cathen/05782a.htm">family</a>. Coins for 32, 30, and 25 B.C., belonging to our Zenodorus, have the superscription, "Zenodorus tetrarch and high <a href="../cathen/12406a.htm">priest</a>.' After the death of <a href="../cathen/07289c.htm">Herod the Great</a> a portion of the tetrarchy of Zenodorus went to <a href="../cathen/07289c.htm">Herod's</a> son, Philip (Jos., "Ant.", XVII, xi, 4), referred to by St. Luke, "Philip being tetrarch of Iturea" (<a href="../bible/luk003.htm#vrs1">Luke 3:1</a>).</p> <p>Another tetrarchy sliced off from the dominions of Zenodorus lay to the east between Chalcis and Damascus, and went by the name of <a href="../cathen/01043b.htm">Abila</a> or Abilene. Abila is frequently spoken of by <a href="../cathen/08522a.htm">Josephus</a> as a tetrarchy, and in "Ant.", XVIII, vi, 10, he calls it the "tetrarchy of Lysanias". Claudius, in A.D. 41, conferred "Abila of Lysanias" on <a href="../cathen/07289c.htm#IV">Agrippa I</a> (Ant., XIX, v, 1). In a. D. 53, <a href="../cathen/07289c.htm#V">Agrippa II</a> obtained Abila, "which last had been the tetrarchy of Lysanias" (Ant., XX., vii, 1). "From these passages we see that the tetrarchy of <a href="../cathen/01043b.htm">Abila</a> had belonged previously to A.D. 37 to a certain Lysanias, and seeing that <a href="../cathen/08522a.htm">Josephus</a> nowhere previously makes any mention of another Lysanias, except the contemporary of Anthony and Cleopatra, 40-36 B.C. . . . criticism has endeavoured in various ways to show that there had not afterwards been any other, and that the tetrarchy of Abilene had its name from the older Lysanias. But this is impossible" (Schürer, 337). Lysanias I inherited the Iturean empire of his <a href="../cathen/11478c.htm">father</a> Ptolemy, of which Abila was but a small and very obscure portion. Calchis in Coele-Syria was the capital of his kingdom, not Abila in Abilene. He reigned only about four years and was a comparatively obscure individual when compared with his <a href="../cathen/11478c.htm">father</a> Ptolemy, or his successor Zenodorus, both of whom reigned many years. There is no reason why any portion of his kingdom should have been called after his name rather than theirs, and it is highly improbable that <a href="../cathen/08522a.htm">Josephus</a> speaks of Abilene as called after him seventy years after his death. As Lysanias I was king over the whole region, one small portion of it could not be called <em>his</em> tetrarchy or kingdom, as is done by <a href="../cathen/08522a.htm">Josephus</a> (Bel. Jud., II, xii, 8). "It must therefore be assumed as certain that at a later date the district of Abilene had been severed from the kingdom of Calchis, and had been governed by a younger Lysanias as tetrarch" (Schürer, 337). The existence of such a late Lysanias is shown by an inscription found at <a href="../cathen/01043b.htm">Abila</a>, containing the statement that a certain Nymphaios, the freedman of Lysanias, built a street and erected a temple in the time of the "August Emperors". <em>Augusti</em> (<em>Sebastoi</em>) in the plural was never used before the death of <a href="../cathen/02107a.htm">Augustus</a>, A.D. 14. The first contemporary <em>Sebastoi</em> were <a href="../cathen/14717b.htm">Tiberius</a> and his mother Livia, i.e. at a time fifty years after the first Lysanias. An inscription at Heliopolis, in the same region, makes it probable that there were several princes of this name. "The <a href="../cathen/05645a.htm">Evangelist</a> Luke is thoroughly correct when he assumes (iii, 1) that in the fifteenth year of <a href="../cathen/14717b.htm">Tiberius</a> there was a Lysanias tetrarch of Abilene" (Schürer, op. cit., where full literature is given; Vigouroux, op. cit.).</p> <h2 id="viii">Who spoke the Magnificat?</h2> <p>Lately an attempt has been made to ascribe the Magnificat to Elizabeth instead of to the Blessed Virgin. All the early Fathers, all the Greek <a href="../cathen/09614b.htm">manuscripts</a>, all the versions, all the Latin <a href="../cathen/09614b.htm">manuscripts</a> (except three) have the reading in <a href="../bible/luk001.htm#vrs46">Luke 1:46</a>: <em>Kai eipen Mariam--Et ait Maria</em> [And Mary said]: <em>Magnificat anima mea Dominum,</em> etc. Three Old Latin <a href="../cathen/09614b.htm">manuscripts</a> (the earliest <a href="../cathen/04636c.htm">dating</a> from the end of the fourth cent.), a, b, l (called <em>rhe</em> by Westcott and Hort), have <em>Et ait Elisabeth.</em> These tend to such close agreement that their combined evidence is single rather than threefold. They are full of gross blunders and palpable corruptions, and the attempt to pit their evidence against the many thousands of Greek, Latin, and other <a href="../cathen/09614b.htm">manuscripts</a>, is anything but scientific. If the evidence were reversed, <a href="../cathen/03449a.htm">Catholics</a> would be held up to ridicule if they ascribed the Magnificat to Mary. The three <a href="../cathen/09614b.htm">manuscripts</a> gain little or no support from the internal evidence of the passage. The Magnificat is a cento from the song of Anna (<a href="../bible/1sa002.htm">1 Samuel 2</a>), the Psalms, and other places of the <a href="../cathen/14526a.htm">Old Testament</a>. If it were spoken by Elizabeth it is remarkable that the portion of Anna's song that was most applicable to her is omitted: "The barren hath borne many: and she that had many children is weakened." See, on this subject, Emmet in "The Expositor" (Dec., 1909); Bernard, ibid. (March, 1907); and the exhaustive works of two <a href="../cathen/03449a.htm">Catholic</a> writers: Ladeuze, "Revue d'histoire ecclésiastique" (Louvain, Oct., 1903); Bardenhewer, "Maria Verkündigung" (Freiburg, 1905).</p> <h2 id="ix">The census of Quirinius</h2> <p>No portion of the <a href="../cathen/14530a.htm">New Testament</a> has been so fiercely attacked as <a href="../bible/luk002.htm#vrs1">Luke 2:1-5</a>. Schürer has brought together, under six heads, a formidable array of all the objections that can be urged against it. There is not space to refute them here; but Ramsay in his "Was Christ born in Bethlehem?" has shown that they all fall to the ground:--</p> <p>(1) St. Luke does not assert that a census took place all over the Roman Empire before the death of <a href="../cathen/07289c.htm">Herod</a>, but that a decision emanated from <a href="../cathen/02107a.htm">Augustus</a> that regular census were to be made. Whether they were carried out in general, or not, was no concern of St. Luke's. If history does not prove the existence of such a <a href="../cathen/04670a.htm">decree</a> it certainly proves nothing against it. It was thought for a long time that the system of Indictions was inaugurated under the early Roman emperors, it is now known that they owe their origin to <a href="../cathen/04295c.htm">Constantine the Great</a> (the first taking place fifteen years after his victory of 312), and this in spite of the fact that history <a href="../cathen/08673a.htm">knew</a> nothing of the matter. Kenyon holds that it is very probable that <a href="../cathen/04613a.htm">Pope Damasus</a> ordered the <a href="../cathen/15515b.htm">Vulgate</a> to be regarded as the only authoritative edition of the Latin Bible; but it would be difficult to Prove it historically. If "history knows nothing" of the census in Palestine before 4 B.C. neither did it <a href="../cathen/08673a.htm">know</a> anything of the fact that under the Romans in <a href="../cathen/05329b.htm">Egypt</a> regular personal census were held every fourteen years, at least from A.D. 20 till the time of Constantine. Many of these census papers have been discovered, and they were called <em>apographai,</em> the name used by St. Luke. They were made without any reference to <a href="../cathen/12462a.htm">property</a> or taxation. The head of the household gave his name and age, the name and age of his wife, children, and slaves. He mentioned how many were included in the previous census, and how many born since that time. Valuation returns were made every year. The fourteen years' cycle did not originate in <a href="../cathen/05329b.htm">Egypt</a> (they had a different system before 19 B.C.), but most probably owed its origin to <a href="../cathen/02107a.htm">Augustus</a>, 8 B.C., the fourteenth year of his <em>tribunitia potestas,</em> which was a great year in <a href="../cathen/13164a.htm">Rome</a>, and is called the year I in some inscriptions. Apart from St. Luke and <a href="../cathen/08522a.htm">Josephus</a>, history is equally <a href="../cathen/07648a.htm">ignorant</a> of the second enrolling in Palestine, A.D. 6. So many discoveries about ancient times, concerning which history has been silent, have been made during the last thirty years that it is surprising modern authors should brush aside a statement of St. Luke's, a respectable first-century writer, with a mere appeal to the silence of history on the matter.</p> <p>(2) The first census in Palestine, as described by St. Luke, was not made according to Roman, but Jewish, methods. St. Luke, who travelled so much, could not be <a href="../cathen/07648a.htm">ignorant</a> of the Roman system, and his description deliberately excludes it. The Romans did not run counter to the feelings of <a href="../cathen/12514b.htm">provincials</a> more than they could help. <a href="../cathen/08399a.htm">Jews</a>, who were proud of being able to prove their descent, would have no objection to the enrolling described in <a href="../bible/luk002.htm">Luke 2</a>. Schürer's arguments are vitiated throughout by the supposition that the census mentioned by St. Luke could be made only for taxation purposes. His discussion of imperial taxation learned but beside the mark (cf. the practice in <a href="../cathen/05329b.htm">Egypt</a>). It was to the advantage of <a href="../cathen/02107a.htm">Augustus</a> to <a href="../cathen/08673a.htm">know</a> the number of possible enemies in Palestine, in case of revolt.</p> <p>(3) <a href="../cathen/07289c.htm">King Herod</a> was not as independent as he is described for controversial purposes. A few years before <a href="../cathen/07289c.htm">Herod's</a> death <a href="../cathen/02107a.htm">Augustus</a> wrote to him. <a href="../cathen/08522a.htm">Josephus</a>, "Ant.", XVI, ix., 3, has: "Cæsar [Augustus] . . . grew very angry, and wrote to <a href="../cathen/07289c.htm">Herod</a> sharply. The sum of his epistle was this, that whereas of old he used him as a friend, he should now use him as his subject." It was after this that <a href="../cathen/07289c.htm">Herod</a> was asked to number his people. That some such enrolling took place we gather from a passing remark of <a href="../cathen/08522a.htm">Josephus</a>, "Ant.", XVII, ii, 4, "Accordingly, when all the people of the <a href="../cathen/08399a.htm">Jews</a> gave assurance of their good will to <a href="../cathen/02107a.htm">Cæsar [Augustus]</a>, and to the king's [<a href="../cathen/07289c.htm">Herod's</a>] government, these very men [the <a href="../cathen/11789b.htm">Pharisees</a>] did not swear, being above six thousand." The best scholars think they were asked to swear allegiance to <a href="../cathen/02107a.htm">Augustus</a>.</p> <p>(4) It is said there was no room for Quirinius, in <a href="../cathen/14399a.htm">Syria</a>, before the death of <a href="../cathen/07289c.htm">Herod</a> in 4 B.C. C. Sentius Saturninus was governor there from 9-6 B.C.; and Quintilius Varus, from 6 B.C. till after the death of <a href="../cathen/07289c.htm">Herod</a>. But in turbulent provinces there were sometimes times two Roman officials of equal standing. In the time of Caligula the administration of <a href="../cathen/01181a.htm">Africa</a> was divided in such a way that the military power, with the foreign policy, was under the control of the lieutenant of the emperor, who could be called a <em>hegemon</em> (as in St. Luke), while the internal affairs were under the ordinary proconsul. The same position was held by <a href="../cathen/15379a.htm">Vespasian</a> when he conducted the <a href="../cathen/15546c.htm">war</a> in Palestine, which belonged to the province of <a href="../cathen/14399a.htm">Syria</a>--a province governed by an officer of equal rank. <a href="../cathen/08522a.htm">Josephus</a> speaks of Volumnius as being <em>Kaisaros hegemon,</em> together with C. Sentius Saturninus, in <a href="../cathen/14399a.htm">Syria</a> (9-6 B.C.): "There was a hearing before Saturninus and Volumnius, who were then the presidents of <a href="../cathen/14399a.htm">Syria</a>" (Ant., XVI, ix, 1). He is called <em>procurator</em> in "Bel. Jud.", I, xxvii, 1, 2. Corbulo commanded the armies of <a href="../cathen/14399a.htm">Syria</a> against the Parthians, while Quadratus and Gallus were successively governors of <a href="../cathen/14399a.htm">Syria</a>. Though <a href="../cathen/08522a.htm">Josephus</a> speaks of Gallus, he knows nothing of Corbulo; but he was there nevertheless (Mommsen, "Röm. Gesch.", V, 382). A similar position to that of Corbulo must have been held by Quirinius for a few years between 7 and 4 B.C.</p> <p>The best treatment of the subject is that by Ramsay "Was Christ Born in Bethlehem?" See also the valuable essays of two <a href="../cathen/03449a.htm">Catholic</a> writers: Marucchi in "Il Bessarione" (Rome, 1897); Bour, "L'lnscription de Quirinius et le Recensement de S. Luc" (Rome, 1897). Vigouroux, "Le N. T. et les Découvertes Modernes" (Paris, 1890), has a good deal of useful information. It has been suggested that Quirinius is a copyist's <a href="../cathen/05525a.htm">error</a> for Quintilius (Varus).</p> <h2 id="x">Saint Luke and Josephus</h2> <p>The attempt to prove that St. Luke used <a href="../cathen/08522a.htm">Josephus</a> (but inaccurately) has completely broken down. Belser successfully refutes Krenkel in "Theol. Quartalschrift", 1895, 1896. The differences can be explained only on the supposition of entire independence. The resemblances are sufficiently accounted for by the use of the <a href="../cathen/13722a.htm">Septuagint</a> and the common literary Greek of the time by both. See Bebb and Headlam in Hast., "Dict. of the Bible", s. vv. "Luke, Gospel" and "Acts of the Apostles", respectively. Schürer (Zeit. für W. Th., 1876) brushes aside the opinion that St. Luke read <a href="../cathen/08522a.htm">Josephus</a>. When Acts is compared with the <a href="../cathen/13722a.htm">Septuagint</a> and <a href="../cathen/08522a.htm">Josephus</a>, there is convincing evidence that <a href="../cathen/08522a.htm">Josephus</a> was not the source from which the writer of Acts derived his <a href="../cathen/08673a.htm">knowledge</a> of Jewish history. There are numerous verbal and other coincidences with the <a href="../cathen/13722a.htm">Septuagint</a> (Cross in "Expository Times", XI, 5:38, against Schmiedel and the exploded author of "Sup. Religion"). St. Luke did not get his names from <a href="../cathen/08522a.htm">Josephus</a>, as contended by this last writer, thereby making the whole history a concoction. Wright in his "Some New Test. Problems" gives the names of fifty <a href="../cathen/11726a.htm">persons</a> mentioned in <a href="../bible/luk000.htm">St. Luke's Gospel</a>. Thirty-two are common to the other two <a href="../cathen/14389b.htm">Synoptics</a>, and therefore not taken from <a href="../cathen/08522a.htm">Josephus</a>. Only five of the remaining eighteen are found in him, namely, <a href="../cathen/02107a.htm">Augustus Cæsar</a>, <a href="../cathen/14717b.htm">Tiberius</a>, Lysanias, Quirinius, and <a href="../cathen/01536a.htm">Annas</a>. As Annas is always called Ananus in <a href="../cathen/08522a.htm">Josephus</a>, the name was evidently not taken from him. This is corroborated by the way the Gospel speaks of <a href="../cathen/03143b.htm">Caiphas</a>. St. Luke's employment of the other four names shows no connection with the Jewish historian. The mention of numerous countries, cities, and islands in Acts shows complete independence of the latter writer. St. Luke's preface bears a much closer resemblance to those of Greek medical writers than to that of <a href="../cathen/08522a.htm">Josephus</a>. The absurdity of concluding that St. Luke must necessarily be wrong when not in agreement with <a href="../cathen/08522a.htm">Josephus</a> is apparent when we remember the frequent contradictions and blunders in the latter writer.</p> <h2>Appendix: Biblical Commission decisions</h2> <p>The following answers to questions about this Gospel, and that of St. Mark, were issued, 26 June, 1913, by the <a href="../cathen/02557a.htm">Biblical Commission</a>. That Mark, the disciple and interpreter of Peter, and Luke, a doctor, the assistant and companion of Paul, are really the authors of the Gospels respectively attributed to them is clear from Tradition, the testimonies of the Fathers and <a href="../cathen/03744a.htm">ecclesiastical</a> writers, by quotations in their writings, the usage of early <a href="../cathen/07256b.htm">heretics</a>, by versions of the <a href="../cathen/14530a.htm">New Testament</a> in the most ancient and common <a href="../cathen/09614b.htm">manuscripts</a>, and by intrinsic evidence in the text of the Sacred Books. The reasons adduced by some critics against Mark's authorship of the last twelve versicles of his Gospel (xvi, 9-20) do not prove that these versicles are not inspired or canonical, or that Mark is not their author. It is not lawful to <a href="../cathen/05141a.htm">doubt</a> of the inspiration and canonicity of the narratives of Luke on the infancy of Christ (i-ii), on the apparition of the <a href="../cathen/01476d.htm">Angel</a> and of the bloody sweat (xxii, 43-44); nor can it be <a href="../cathen/12454c.htm">proved</a> that these narratives do not belong to the genuine Gospel of Luke.</p> <p>The very few exceptional documents attributing the Magnificat to Elizabeth and not to the Blessed Virgin should not prevail against the testimony of nearly all the <a href="../cathen/04080b.htm">codices</a> of the original Greek and of the versions, the interpretation required by the context, the mind of the Virgin herself, and the constant tradition of the <a href="../cathen/03744a.htm">Church</a>.</p> <p>It is according to most ancient and constant tradition that after Matthew, Mark wrote his Gospel second and Luke third; though it may be held that the second and third Gospels were composed before the Greek version of the first Gospel. It is not lawful to put the <a href="../cathen/04636c.htm">date</a> of the Gospels of Mark and Luke as late as the destruction of <a href="../cathen/08344a.htm">Jerusalem</a> or after the siege had begun. The Gospel of Luke preceded his <a href="../bible/act000.htm">Acts of the Apostles</a>, and was therefore composed before the end of the Roman <a href="../cathen/12430a.htm">imprisonment</a>, when the Acts was finished (<a href="../bible/act028.htm#vrs30">Acts 28:30-31</a>). In view of Tradition and of internal evidence it cannot be <a href="../cathen/05141a.htm">doubted</a> that Mark wrote according to the preaching of Peter, and Luke according to that of Paul, and that both had at their disposal other trustworthy sources, oral or written.</p> <div class='catholicadnet-728x90' id='cathen-728x90-bottom' style='display: flex; height: 100px; align-items: center; justify-content: center; '></div> <div class="pub"><h2>About this page</h2><p id="apa"><strong>APA citation.</strong> <span id="apaauthor">Aherne, C.</span> <span id="apayear">(1910).</span> <span id="apaarticle">Gospel of Saint Luke.</span> In <span id="apawork">The Catholic Encyclopedia.</span> <span id="apapublisher">New York: Robert Appleton Company.</span> <span id="apaurl">http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/09420a.htm</span></p><p id="mla"><strong>MLA citation.</strong> <span id="mlaauthor">Aherne, Cornelius.</span> <span id="mlaarticle">"Gospel of Saint Luke."</span> <span id="mlawork">The Catholic Encyclopedia.</span> <span id="mlavolume">Vol. 9.</span> <span id="mlapublisher">New York: Robert Appleton Company,</span> <span id="mlayear">1910.</span> <span id="mlaurl"><http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/09420a.htm>.</span></p><p id="transcription"><strong>Transcription.</strong> <span id="transcriber">This article was transcribed for New Advent by Ernie Stefanik.</span> <span id="dedication"></span></p><p id="approbation"><strong>Ecclesiastical approbation.</strong> <span id="nihil"><em>Nihil Obstat.</em> October 1, 1910. Remy Lafort, Censor.</span> <span id="imprimatur"><em>Imprimatur.</em> +John M. Farley, Archbishop of New York.</span></p><p id="contactus"><strong>Contact information.</strong> The editor of New Advent is Kevin Knight. My email address is webmaster <em>at</em> newadvent.org. Regrettably, I can't reply to every letter, but I greatly appreciate your feedback — especially notifications about typographical errors and inappropriate ads.</p></div> </div> <div id="ogdenville"><table summary="Bottom bar" width="100%" cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0><tr><td class="bar_white_on_color"><center><strong>Copyright © 2023 by <a href="../utility/contactus.htm">New Advent LLC</a>. 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